What would your life look like if you had an abundance of energy and vitality?

When your energy is low, how do you feel?

When you are experiencing low energy, what is one challenge you are faced with?

When you are feeling low on energy, what is one thing you eat? What is one thing you do?

Stop for a moment and consider the answers to these questions. It can be very beneficial to help inspire the changes that will allow you to feel more abundance of energy and vitality in your life.

The nourishment we give our bodies includes the food we eat and the choices we make in our lives. This time of year, is a great time to consider a healthy mind and body detox. After all of the wonderful celebrations of the holidays, January is a nice time to reboot your health and wellness with a little reset. Try for a week to only consume whole foods (nothing processed). Additionally, a healthy detox involves trying to let go of the negative thoughts and emotions that constantly fill our hearts and heads.

As a health coach, I work with my clients to not just improve the food that they put on their plate. We focus initially on their Primary Foods, which is made up of these four areas: Relationship, Career, Exercise and Spiritual Practice. The physical food on your plate is actually your Secondary Food. When your primary foods are in balance, the physical food you put on your plate (your Secondary Food) will also be in balance. Together improving the Primary and Secondary Foods in your life will lead to total mind, body and soul wellness.

Relationships: Think back to a time in your life when you were newly in love. You probably felt energized, vibrant and beyond happy. I bet when you where in the beginning of this relationship, you lost track of time and didn’t focus on what was going to be on your plate at your next meal. I also imagine that you didn’t come home after an amazing date and plop down on the couch with a pint of ice cream. When you can surround yourself with relationships that lift you up and bring joy to your life, you will be more likely to make healthier food choices.

Have you recently suffered from an injury or illness? Are you finding it hard to get back to your healthy, rockin' self?

I can relate to how you might be feeling. I recently had back surgery (this past February). Prior to surgery, I was actively and consistently working out and feeling good about my body. After surgery, I had to take time off my exercise routine to heal. This was very hard for me. You could say my approach to working out is “go big or go home”. I have had this attitude about my exercise for as long as I can remember. I push myself to do the best I can at each work out to achieve the best results. Well, it was extremely difficult for me, emotionally, to accept that at least for a couple of months simple walking each day would be the extent of my post surgery workout routine. I felt a little sorry for myself, sad and I guess a bit defeated. All that work I had done and now just walking?! That was a very hard reality for me. I actually found myself not really doing much movement/walking at all the first couple months. I adopted the idea that starting small wasn’t going to be effective. I was very wrong.

Ugggh! The dreaded pimple(s)! Why does acne always show up at the worst time? You may feel like you are caring for your skin in all the right ways yet low and behold, BAM, a nasty pimple! Maybe a breakout occurs right before a first date, a dance, a romantic getaway or before a presentation you have to do for work? You get the idea. If you pay attention to when and where a breakout shows up, you can understand the deeper underlying issue inside your body. Where a problem or breakout shows up on your face corresponds to an organ/area inside of your body. Eating certain types of food can trigger acne. Fluctuations in hormones, toxicity build up, as well as infection can all play a part in this puzzle. It's time to become your own skin detective and solve the problem of how to prevent and what to do when a breakout occurs. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this theory is called "face mapping".

Have you ever consumed an entire bag of chips, box of crackers or package of cookies? Did you ever eat pizza or dessert until you felt physically sick? What about indulged in too much coffee or an alcoholic beverage that your body didn’t really even want?

What were you feeling at the time? What emotions were you experiencing?

These questions are important to understand and answer because so many times we eat too much or drink too much as a way to turn our attention away from some sort of inner pain we are trying to ignore. When you think about times that you have over indulged, were you even hungry at the time? Where you feeling alone, sad, depressed, angry, frustrated, etc.? Or was it something else?

The report is due in two hours. Or perhaps you’re in the middle of a mid-term exam. Or you’re making sales calls. Suddenly, bam! Around 10:30 a.m. you hit a wall. All you want to do is look out the window.

Hmmm…what did you eat for breakfast?

I hate to say, “I told you so,” so I’ll turn to Mom, who has said it countless times: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s the meal that’s designed to supply a third of the macro and micro nutrients your body needs to run without a hitch.

So what are you eating each morning to do all these things? A cup of coffee gulped down on the go? A cup of sugary yogurt and a muffin eaten at your desk? Nothing at all?

Your body deserves so much better than that. And so do you!

When you eat a good breakfast, your day goes smoothly. No growling stomachs, low blood sugar shakiness, or wandering attention to keep you from nailing those big goals you’ve made for yourself.

What Breakfast is Right for You?

One of the best—and most fun—ways to find out which foods serve YOU most powerfully is...

It starts by eating a diet full of colorful and nutritious whole foods, along with eliminating and/or reducing harmful toxins from our environment and our bodies. I am talking about the emotional as well as physical toxins here. Negative thoughts don’t serve you or your potential. I encourage you to find ways to remove them from your life, which will be very beneficial to your emotional (internal) well-being. The physical toxins are those that are in the air we breathe inside as well as outside of our homes. It’s the added and unnatural chemicals found in our carpets, paint, furniture, body, skin and hair care products, cleaning products, certain types of pots and pans, plastics, etc.

What we eat on a daily basis affects our body on the inside as well as the outside. Eating foods rich in vitamins and minerals will give you beautiful lustrous hair, vibrant, youthful skin and healthy nails. Who doesn’t want that?! How many of these foods find their way to your plate every day?

What a wonderful time of year it is! All the hustle and bustle of the Holidays can be very exciting and also a little draining. It’s super important to make sure you are taking fabulous care of yourself during this time to ensure you feel your best emotionally and physically. As lovely as the holidays are, they can also bring a little added stress with all of the parties spent with friends, coworkers and extended family. If you are like me, sometimes these moments can be a little exhausting and quite frankly, stressful. Family is wonderful, but there have been times when issues have come up. Staying focused, positive and having a heart of compassion and forgiveness has always helped me get through it in a genuine and peaceful way.

STAY HYDRATED – Proper hydration is so important to your body functioning at an optimal level. Did you know that sometimes if you find yourself craving sweets, you could actually be dehydrated? Your body is in need of water at that moment, not something highly processed or loaded with sugar.

How often have you wished you could make a dream that you have had become your reality? Does it seem like something that could actually happen or does it seem like something that is too far out of reach? What if nothing was holding you back? What would your life look like if you were living it the way you truly want?

We hear stories all the time of people who have transformed their lives or the lives of others in uplifting and inspiring ways:

The doctor who was able to find the root cause and a cure for his patient’s difficult to heal illness.

The woman who decided to get up off the couch and take back her life by loosing the 150 lbs. that kept her housebound for years.

The mama who would stop at nothing to find a way to help her sick child become healthy again.

The grandmother that is 95 years old and is as sharp and vibrant as ever due to a lifetime of a healthy diet and lifestyle.

People all over the world, people just like you, are making their dreams come true.

If you could just sit quietly for a moment, close your eyes and calm your breath, what thoughts come into your head? If you could give yourself just 20 minutes a day just for you to recharge, what would you do? What would you do if time was not an issue? What would you do if you were expected to take this time for yourself each day?

Self-care is not a selfish thing to do. Did you know if you don't make time to take care of yourself, you will not be any good to those around you? If you are constantly going from one thing to the next, you run the risk of becoming depleted emotionally and exhausted physically. It is really important to give yourself permission to take this time to get back to feeling centered and grounded.

It’s not just about what you put in your body, but also what you put on your body. Below are the list of ingredients found in so many, beauty, skin care and hair care products that are toxic and harmful to your body. Your skin is your largest organ. What you put on it gets absorbed into the bloodstream. When you buy products that contain these ingredients, you are exposing your body to chemicals, which can cause birth defects, cancer, infertility, learning disabilities, reproductive problems and skin allergies.

I am sure you already know how important it is to feed yourself and your loved ones the best quality food available. Are you aware, however, that certain fruits and vegetables are better for you when purchased organically?

There are so many toxins in our environment and pesticides and chemicals on our food. I wanted to give you a handy tool to help you make the best decisions possible while taking a trip to your local market. I have included the “Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen” list of foods.

The Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables that contain the most amount of pesticides. Even when you wash the fruits and vegetables, the pesticides that were sprayed onto the plants and on the ground get into the root system of the plant. You sure don’t want to ingest these toxic chemicals. Try to purchase these foods labeled organic as much as possible. This is really important!

As spring arrives, the energy from the earth is rising all around us. In Ancient Medicine, we are connected to the earth and that energy is rising in our body as well. This is why spring is the best time to detox and rejuvenate. There are so many toxins surrounding us each day, through products in our home, in our skincare, in the foods we eat and in the environment. Without a diet rich in whole foods, the liver has to work really hard to keep us healthy. The liver controls the smooth flow of energy in our body. When it gets stuck, stagnation will take place. If the liver is over-burdened by toxins, it will get congested and won't be able to function properly. When the liver is congested and the rising energy gets stuck, we can experience headaches, lack of creativity and frustration. This congestion can also show up as allergies and in different ways on our skin (acne, eczema, etc). This is the way the body will flush out toxins.

Here are some ways to detox the body in the spring:

Fasting-no food, just water for a period of 2-3 days (this isn't for everyone).

Vegan/Vegetarian meals for a period of 21 days (animal fats and proteins and oils will congest the liver).

You can do a juice cleanse for 3 days.

Try the Master Cleanse, which is: maple syrup, lemon juice, filtered water and cayenne pepper for 3-5 days. When you fast from food, this gives your body time to rejuvenate and detoxify.

Andrea Beaman, a nationally renowned Holistic Health Coach and Natural Foods Chef, suggests that before you start any cleanse, you must first do a bug and parasite cleanse. This will assist you in feeling well during a detox....